Rec Room Hero
by Misery Curtains
Summary: It was pretty well-established soon after that Jeremie wasn't a drinker. And so, of course, this is the story of the one time he broke his own rule.


_Face down in the gutter, won't admit defeat_

 _though his clothes are soiled and black,_

 _He's a big, strong man with a child's mind,_

 _Don't you take his booze away!_

-Barroom Hero by Dropkick Murphys

* * *

Jeremie never was a drinker.

It was obvious that the only Belpois child had a certain natural aversion to alcohol of any kind. He never partook in the vino with Odd and Samantha whenever he snuck a bottle onto campus. He stayed far away when Yumi broke out the sake, no matter how much Aelita poked, prodded, pressure him. And when Ulrich had gotten a hold of a six-pack of his grandfather's lager from the Fatherland, he politely declined and accepted the ribbing that followed.

He had no real reason to avoid the stuff. His parents always liked red wine with their food, which never caused any problems. The boy couldn't remember ever having a particularly bad experience or anything of the sort; he just never found any reason to drink. He knew he didn't have an addictive personality, and wasn't worried about becoming an alcoholic. No, Jeremie must've just seen himself as above all that underage drinking nonsense. He took a lot of health PSAs to heart, and must've internalized this one pretty hard. Honestly, after the few times he refused to drink, the other Lyoko Warriors just shrugged and let him have his soda or hot chocolate or what-have-you.

It was pretty well-established soon after that Jeremie wasn't a drinker.

And so, of course, this is the story of the one time he broke his own rule.

* * *

Sometime 'round St. Patrick's Day, Kadic Academy decided that it'd host a school-wide mixer. Students were allowed to hang out in the Recreations Room for a full night, unsupervised, complete with non-alcoholic beverages and snacks and even a shamrock-shaped cake. It might've ultimately been pretty tacky in the end, aesthetically speaking, but given that the teachers and staff could've used a night off to go drink up at a local pub or something, the event was gladly accepted by the student body.

So, naturally, some of the guys and girls began asking each other to be their dates to the party. Yeses and noes were answered in equal measure, but fortunately, Jeremie Belpois had been able to nap a date of his own: the pink apple of his eye, Aelita Stones, had accepted his invitation. They sat on a bench, waiting for the remainder of their group to come around and join them.

"You think it's gonna be busy tonight?" Aelita asked.

"Nah, it'll be pretty mediocre, I think. A lot of kids don't even use the rec room all that much. I don't expect a great turn-out." Jeremie sipped on the scalding cocoa in little intervals. The light breeze of the day hadn't been helpful in its cooling-down of his beverage, and Aelita watched with a goofy smile as her little Einstein's eyes teared up while he tried to power through the drink's heat. "You know," she started, "you could just blow on it."

"Oh. Uh, heh, ok." Jeremie blushed and began blowing little ripples into the milky brown. Aelita just giggled.

A moment of silence settled between them before he finally perked up. "Hey, Aelita?"

"Yes, Jeremie?"

"Um… do you… agh, geez… do you have a problem with me not being the most, um, 'manilest'?" The boy's face went a shade of crimson embarrassment. It became apparent to her that this seemed to weigh on him quite a bit.

"No, Jeremie, I've never had a problem with that. I like you for you, silly! Look, if I wanted a big ol' manly man, I'd've asked someone like Ulrich or Odd! But that's not what I want. I just want you." She kissed him on the cheek, and somehow, all those little troubles in the pit of Jeremie's stomach melted away.

Some distance away, they saw the remainder of their group come waltzing up to the bench. The day was about to begin. Time to go.

. . .

It seemed, at least in his case, that Jeremie always remembered things at the most inopportune times. Just as he was about to sit down to dive into a fine ravioli lunch, something clicked in his head in that hidden lobe that obsessed about Lyoko day in and day out. "Oh crap!" He bellowed, registering the attention of his friends.

"What's up, Einstein?" is what Jeremie assumed Odd had asked, trying to translate the mess of pasta-sloshed noises coming from his friend's mouth.

"I forgot about some scans I have to do on the supercomputer still!"

Instead of intrigue and concern, the Lyoko Warriors all grumbled and slouched in their chairs, trying to melt to the floor so they didn't have to think about Lyoko today. "Einstein, seriously? Today's St. Patrick's, the night of the party! Can't we just have one day where we _don't_ get paranoid about a X.A.N.A. attack?" Ulrich demanded. It was true, the fatigue was becoming more obvious, and they had all been looking forward to tonight. "I mean," the German continued, "Some of us, oh, I don't know, _have lives?_ And we'd like to, maybe, _live them?_ " Yumi's face slapped up against her palm. She loved him, but he really was a hothead a lot of the time.

"But this is important! Maybe if I can get them all done in time, we can still make the tail-end of the party!"

A great collective groan let out, nearly shaking the foundation of the cafeteria building. Jeremie could feel the tide of the conversation turning against him. That is, until Aelita then spoke up. "Hey, look, Jeremie obviously must know this is important. You guys know he wouldn't bring it up if he didn't think it was crucial."

Everyone was silent. They _guessed_ they knew that. Jeremie was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when-

"That being said."

Damn.

"Jeremie, we should at least take some sort of break. How often are we going to be able to party like this? This isn't us giving up, this is us taking time for ourselves to, I don't know, be kids for once!"

"But Aelita! We'll have time to party once X.A.N.A. is taken care of! I mean, don't you worry about what he could be planning?"

"Of course! But that doesn't mean we're going to let it rule our lives! Jeremie, I beg you, just take one night off from worrying about Lyoko. Come join us at the party, have a good time!" Aelita took a hold of Jeremie's hand, and squeezed gently. "Please?"

Now, this could've all gone away. It could've all been resolved like _that_. But of course, it wasn't. No, Jeremie was too stubborn in his focus on Lyoko, and despite the obvious plea from the girl who'd changed his life for the better, he just couldn't find it in himself to let go of that focus. Lyoko, somehow, had overtaken his mind, screwed up his priorities, and with that, he withdrew his hand from Aelita's.

"I'm sorry, I have to do this. You all understand, right?" Jeremie looked on with eyes pleading. Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, they all looked away. They'd had enough of this. All at once, they arose, trays in hand, and took off for a less oppressive atmosphere. He turned to Aelita, hoping maybe he'd changed her mind, but before he could look her in the eyes, a sharp slap whacked across his face, leaving a strong sting in his cheek. Once he had recoiled and re-postured himself, Jeremie saw only teary eyes and a face of hurt.

"Damn you, Jeremie."

And away Aelita fled, face in hands, tears trailing behind her.

. . .

The light from the rec room doorway poked a hole in the night-stained concrete that surrounded the little shack. Jeremie, who everyone thought had run off to the factory, instead watched from a distance. He rubbed his shoulders in the chilly spring breeze, feeling all the colder as he watched through the door. Everyone was jumping around, laughing, drinking punch or whatever, and most of all, having a good time without him. He huffed and began walking towards the woods, trying to forget his fuck-up from earlier in the day. Maybe he could've let it go, he thought. Maybe he could've just pushed aside whatever Lyoko-related matters popped into his head for just one goddamn night. God, why was he so bad at this social interaction thing? It couldn't be this hard to grasp a hold of his friends' desire to go just hang out and party like normal people. Somewhere in the pit of his stomach, he knew this. He knew they shouldn't let X.A.N.A. and Lyoko and the Hermitage and Franz Hopper get them all down, especially on what was supposed to be a pretty joyous day.

By the time his thoughts had compounded his regret fully into his head, Jeremie had walked to the centre of the campus wood, and he shivered as the wind cut at him in almost punishing blows. He looked around, trying to make his next move, only to be distracted by some laughter flowing from behind a bush. Jeremie walked over, parted some branches, and found Odd and Samantha laughing shoulder to shoulder on the ground and against a tree. They were in possession of a bottle of something dark. Wine, probably. Red, he figured.

"Einstein!" Odd burped, sending Samantha into laughs before realizing what he said wasn't some drunken non sequitur. She snorted a chuckle and waved dazedly to the blonde boy.

"Odd? You're not at the party?" Jeremie questioned.

"Nah, Samantha wanted to have our own party, so she brought some _vino_!" He guffawed before taking a large swig and passing it to the girl on the right. "You not at the party with the princess?"

"Not after what happened today," sighed Jeremie. Odd nodded before wiping his mouth and sputtering out, "You know, I heard Hervé asked her out to the party after catching wind of you guys' little blow-up at lunch."

Hairs on the back of 'Einstein's' neck pricked up. "He WHAT?"

"Yeah! Like, he just kinda swooped in," then he made a silly _wooshing_ motion with his hand, "and apparently, she said yes!"

Jeremie suddenly felt his tongue go dry. "Give that bottle," he snarled.

. . .

The rec room looked like it was about to explode. Packed to capacity and ready to blow out its windows, the Kadic St. Paddy's Day Party was going off without a hitch in sight. Everyone was dancing and trying not to spill their drinks. Over the PA system, Wang Chung was dictating to everyone to have fun tonight. And for the most part, everyone was. Although, Aelita couldn't quite say she was having fun, especially with Hervé hovering over her every move.

"Um, some party, huh?" Hervé squeaked right in her ear. She flinched, not believing he used such a clichéd line. "Ye-yeah, I suppose…" Her voice trailed off, like her thoughts, trying to think where her Jeremie could've gone to.

"You know, that was really shitty how Jeremie acted earlier today. No one should treat someone as beautiful as you like that, Aelita." Hervé was _really_ trying, and she could (reluctantly) appreciate that, but it really just wasn't working. Tonight just wasn't the same without-

"HERVE!"

Something loud and slurred came blaring over the speakers. The music died quick-like, and everyone turned to the doorway, where Jeremie Belpois stood slumped over himself. An empty bottle of wine hung in his limp fingers. His hair was a matted mess upon his forehead, and his glasses were bent crooked. "IMMA KICK YOUR ASS!" He bellowed.

"Belpois! What're you doing here?" Hervé demanded, readying himself into a lame fighting stance.

"Jeremie, are you… are you _drunk_?" Aelita asked, not sure if she was enraged or concerned for the newly-belligerent boy.

"Aelita… Aelita, I'm so sorry, I shouldnta… shouldnta yelled, or been a dick, or any o' that… Im so sorry, princess…"

Now, usually, when she saw someone when she cared about drunk, Aelita would get pissed. ESPECIALLY if they were belligerent and sloshed beyond reason. But something about Jeremie's heartfelt apology, mixed with his messy appearance and goofy smile, lit a little fire of forgiveness in her. She just wished it hadn't taken what she assumed was way too much wine for one person to get him to this point.

"But first," he blurted out before pointing at his rival, "I'm gonna kick your ass!" His weirdly high-pitched voice made deeper from the wine sent a few chuckles through the crowd as they formed a circle around the two combantants. "Alright, bring it, Belpois!" Hervé cried, and Jeremie dropped the bottle, pulled back his fist, and slammed a hard left hook into the acne-punctured face in front of him. Hervé went down, but before Jeremie could jump atop him and pummel him further, Hervé kicked up one of his feet and jammed it into his gut, leaving a dusty footprint upon his baby-blue shirt. By the time the green-shirted boy was up on his feet, 'Einstein' came back a-swinging, punching up his face a few solid times. Hervé looked around in a daze, his broken glasses multiplying his rival's fist by ten. Jeremie threw one last punch to the centre of Hervé's face, clocking him squarely and dropping him in an instant. Hervé was out completely. Everyone was dead silent. Jeremie looked at them, flashed a bloody grin, looked to Aelita, then fell to the floor, passed out and fast asleep.

. . .

Kadic Academy's two smartest kids came shuffling out of Delmas' office, bandaged and despondent. Jeremie's mouth was stuffed with cotton, while Hervé's face was black and blue from the former's drunken blows. No one waited for them outside the office, and the secretary just watched in amazement at their beaten states. The bloodied both of them went their separate ways once outside. With Hervé walking over to Sissi and Nicholas, who demanded to hear the story. Jeremie, on the other hand, didn't see any of his friends around. Save for one.

"Hey, Jeremie."

"Hey, Aelita."

She held a half-melted ice pack and handed it to him. He took it and placed it atop his head, holding it in place with his not-so-bloodied hand. He limped over to the nearest bench and plopped himself down. She followed suit, and they just sat in peace for a moment.

Aelita then asked, "Where'd you get the wine?"

"Odd," Jeremie muttered.

"Ah."

Silence came swirling back around them until-

"You know," Aelita then began, "We both really handled the whole thing kinda poorly."

"Yeah, we did."

"I know how much Lyoko is important. Not just to you, but to all of us. I think we were just so fatigued by it all that when you said you had to run a scan on the night of the party, we all kinda snapped. Me most of all."

"Yeah, you did. But I shouldn't have been such a jerk about it. I mean, we're friends. Yeah, we're Lyoko Warriors, but most of all we're friends. First and foremost. I should learn to relax once in a while."

Aelita turned to Jeremie. He turned to her.

"I know you can. I'll help." She scooted in close to him and rested her head upon his shoulder. "Just, don't drink ever again. Ok? Drunk you is kinda scary."

"Oh, I don't think I'll be doing that anytime soon. But it did feel kinda nice to punch Hervé."

They chuckled, and just enjoyed the rest of their stone sober afternoon.

* * *

A/N:

Stupid as hell? Yup.

Improbable? Yup.

Kinda rushed? Unfortunately.

Still fun to write? Hell yeah.

Been depressed lately.

Mostly wrote this because I liked the idea so much and to prove I could still write something worth a damn.

Read, review, follow, favourite, whatever.

Love and strychnine,

~Misery Curtains


End file.
